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Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Mumbai, the fast-paced city of dreams, the financial capital of India and the political capital of Maharashtra, is also home to nine forts and four caves. This piece of news is something that most folks find hard to believe. It is still true though, and I can vouch for it as these pages will soon reveal.

This was my first urban trek so I asked Hitesh to accompany me. For those who came in late, Hitesh is an old friend of mine and an avid trekker. Those who have read my blog before will remember that he had joined me on my visit to Arnala Fort.

Temple in the Cave

Hitesh and I decided to visit these caves on his motorbike as we had more than one place on our agenda. We planned to pay a visit to JogeshwariCaves, MahakaliCaves, Worli Fort, Mahim Fort and Bandra Fort, all in a single day.

JogeshwariCaves are located in Jogeshwari in Mumbai. But, obviously. If you travel by train, Jogeshwari is the next railway station after Andheri on the Western line.

Cave premises

One can reach JogeshwariCaves by boarding a rickshaw from Jogeshwari station on the east. Alternatively it can be reached from the Western Express Highway and the Jogeshwari Vikroli Link Road

These caves are very small and are surrounded by encroachments. Even on reaching the caves, you find yourself wondering, are these the caves? There are two temples in the caves which are currently in use.

Pillars carved in the rock surface, atop enroachments atop the Caves

It took us around 30 minutes to see the caves and to conduct a photo shoot. We saw a few students who had come there to study. A long time ago, monks used to meditate here and now students come here to study.History certainly does repeat itself. It is only the characters that change.

A point to note here is that the caves are infested with bats, so one has to be careful not to disturb them.

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comments:

the weird part about these caves and all of them all across Maharashtra is that they were all carved by the same monks from the Himalayas who worked in the Tabo Gompa which is the oldest in India. i seriously wonder how they traveled all that distance back then. Because getting to Tabo today is one hell of a challenge.